Trump Has ‘Poisoned Palestinian-American Relations’

Erekat added that the U.S. has accepted Israel's position on the designation of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, as well as the future status of settlements in the West Bank and the question of Palestinian refugees.

"Wait until the peace plan is released, and when it's released, please read it cover to cover and judge the plan on its merits - not on rumors, not on speculation, not on news reports, but on what's in it", one of the USA negotiators, Jason Greenblatt, said Thursday on Twitter.

"Washington is completely biased to Israel and it attempts to use its weight to run the conflict in the way that achieves Israeli interests", the professor told Xinhua, adding that none of the US and Israeli proposals can be accepted by any Palestinian.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, 73, former official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), smokes a cigarette during an interview with Reuters, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank September 9.

Palestinian officials, however, have rejected any US role in the peace process since Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital past year.

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Going on for decades now, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict erupted following the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Western-backed creation of Israel in 1948.

The funding reductions come as the Trump administration prepares to unveil a controversial Mideast peace plan dubbed the "Deal of the Century", details of which have yet to be publicized.

Jason Greenblatt, a senior US diplomat who had been closely involved in the proposal-making process, told media that the USA negotiators had entered the "pre-launch phase" of the plan.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Further moves saw the Trump administration withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the United Nations refugee agency dealing with Palestinians and to hospitals in East Jerusalem; and the order to close the Palestine Liberation Organization's mission in Washington, which opened in 1994. Most countries view those settlements as illegal.

The Trump administration has confirmed it will no longer fund peace-building programs for Palestinians and Israelis - including an interfaith youth program and a project for children with disabilities.

In Gaza, ruled by the Islamist Hamas since 2007, two years after Israeli soldiers and settlers withdrew, one of the group's senior leaders, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, said the Oslo deal was not a peace pact but "100 percent surrender" for the Palestinians.

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